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One thing I've noticed about IASIP is that everyone and no one is the straight man on that show. Everyone has been the straight man and everyone has been the one playing off the straight man. Even Charlie, as ridiculous as that sounds, has scenes where he's the straight man to one of the other characters.

I don't think so. Jim was one of the main characters who was sane and reacted to the craziness around him. The straight person is almost all the time one of the main characters. Toby wasn't the straight guy since he was basically the "Meg Griffin" of the Office. Stanley didn't really have qualities that most people can easily relate to.

Generally the straight man is in a two person comedy routine in which one person is acting ridiculous, over the top and outlandish (often referred as the funny man) acting in such a manner that is patently absurd to the normal person, but in a way that's supposed to be funny - but the character itself usually takes what they're saying rather seriously.

The straight man, by contrast, does not see the humor of the situation and often becomes angered, irritated or outraged by these very outlandish situations that they've found themselves in.

In "Who's On First", for instance, the guy who doesn't seem to understand that the player's names are actually Who, What, I Don't Know and so forth is the straight man - and the other guy who casually refers to the names of players in a way that, to everyone is admittedly confusing, but does not seem to understand why anyone would have trouble confusing what he's saying is the funny man.

Essentially the funny man is the one making the joke, and the straight man is reacting to it as a person who does not get the joke and is taking what the funny man said as if it is not intended to be funny - this, of course, often makes things funnier.

If you ever watch The Daily Show, John Stewart is usually the straight man in the interactions with other correspondants - whereas Stephen Colbert is the typical funny man because he is saying obviously absurd things, but being entirely serious and not (in character) believing that anyone could find them funny.

Colbert's genius is that he plays his own straight-man. Acting the fool while taking himself completely seriously, not quite getting why people are laughing, deliberately misinterpreting laughter as applause etc... I'm trying to think of any other comics to have pulled this off and I'm drawing a blank.

Thing is - things aren't funny without the straight man. Without him, you just have crazy people acting crazy. There's no character who more or less understands them yet is standing in for the audience, giving the reaction a regular person would give if they found themselves in that situation.

Ehhhh, I don't know about that...there was plenty of the goods to go around I think; Costanza was just more outlandish emotionally. Jerry was more limited by his character's personality. Hence, I gave the edge to George.

So glad they made him Beast in the Xmen films. Professor X and Beast. They could have recast everybody else, even Wolverine, but those two they got perfect. And Xavier was a gimme. It was Patrick Stewart or nobody. They could have fucked up Beast.

DAE find the theme song to M.A.S.H to be incredibly sad? And I'm not even talking about the Movie version with words; completely ignore the words. I don't know what it is, I never even watched the show, but something about that music strikes me and makes me incredibly sad.

It's practically a jazz dirge, it's supposed to sound sad, it's played like a slightly upbeat funeral march. The lyrics are actually supposed to be funny verging on stupid, Robert Altman wanted them to sound immature, which was why he had his 15 year old son write them.

Don was just perfectly acted and written. There's an episode where he sinks into a chair next to Mary and casually comments "You know they have a litter box, but they don't have a cat" kind of explained the whole series.

The writing on the show was absolutely superb. The fact that they wrote Tommy and Dick to be so similar throughout the series was one of the best parts.

It's also the only series that correctly captured College Office Size Politics.

The only character that wasn't consistently written was Strudwick, but I think that's more a function of binge rewatching the series and noticing than something I had noticed when it came out.

You know how everybody on Reddit grouses about The Big Bang Theory? Well, 3rd Rock is the antidote to that show. An actual show by nerds, for nerds. Even has Joseph Gordon Levitt for the ladies. Okay, so he's like 15 but still.

I love Bob. I grew up with Bob, Comedy genius. But great actor? He does his long-suffering deadpan pretty much, his genius is in sharing his discomfort with you, so call it acting I guess. I'd probably put him in my 'greatest straight-men of all time' folder.

He was also great as Mr. Furley. Watch scenes with him on Three's Company with the mute on-- or if not, notice how many times he could make the audience laugh without making a sound. He had some of the best and funniest damned reaction
shots and takes you've ever seen, and could have easily been a great silent film star of the likes of Keaton.

You should look up the video of him and Seinfeld talking on Seinfeld's "Driving in Cars with Comedians" or whatever it's called. I felt bad for the guy. He fucked up and lost his temper, but he doesn't deserve the legacy that it has seemed to give him.

Losing your temper and beating the shit out of your girlfriend is inexcusable, and yet people only "care" in so far as they'll make snide comments, all the while he's still going to award shows and making music and getting airplay like it's nothing.

But a comedian goes off on a heckler and drops some N-bombs? Sorry, that doesn't given cause a ripple in my pool of give-a-shit.

Jason Alexander is Seinfeld. George Constanza is such a great character, and so different than his other roles, he played him so well, you could have sworn despite the outlandish nature on paper that George was a real person, and you could always see unspoken that something was beneath the surface. Also great at times subtle physicality, look at how George handles food in the diner scenes.

Their is no 'best' in my opinion, so many characters played their role so well that their characters were amazing and hence the tv show.
Will smith, and carlton in the fresh prince.
Matthey perry and matt Le banic in friends, well actually the whole cast made that show work!
Micheal scott from the office, and rain wilson playing as dwight.
I know many people aren't a fan of the big bang, but jim parson does do an excellent job.

In my opinion, Phil Hartman. If he was the core of the show (NewsRadio) he was absolutely hilarious. If he was a guest on a show, he always added a level of humor and absurdity that played well off everyone else (3rd Rock from the Sun, The Simpsons.)